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Henan province

Henan province is a core part of China's cradle of civilization, where the first real Chinese civilization began. This once-proud province has fallen on some hard times, but it still retains some of its historic legacy, including one of the four ancient grand capitals Luoyang and its magnificent Longmen Grottoes, and the Shaolin Temple. I took a brief trip to Luoyang, just two hours away from Xian by high-speed train, in 2012. From there, I also made a daytrip to Shaolin Temple, two hours away near the town of Dengfeng by minibus.